Assume you are on some necessary medication (properly prescribed by a doctor and legal) and you get arrested and thrown in jail. What do the police do?
If you have the medication on you will they be taken with you to jail and handed out as needed?
What if you do not have the drugs on you? Do they have their own pharmacy? Will they go to your house and get the medication?
Does it matter if the medication is a narcotic (but you have a prescription for it)?
Even the smallest county jail will have a contract with a local pharmacy to take care of the inmates’ medical needs. They will probably have a kit (the ones I’ve seen were literally in tackle boxes) that had antibiotics, non-narcotic pain relievers, antacids, basic chronic meds for things like blood pressure, inhalers, etc. and of course some insulin in the refrigerator. They will (or should, anyway) do a medical intake, and a nurse or designated employee will administer the meds as prescribed.
How they handle people on controlled substances depends on the facility.
When I temped at our local pharmacy that did this, it seemed that about half of the women were pregnant. That wasn’t fun to see, believe me.
Do they take the inmate’s word for what they need? I can’t imagine someone lying about needing blood pressure meds but certainly they may lie about pain relievers. My BiL (as law abiding as they come so this is super unlikely to happen) is on perpetual pain relief medicine (opioids I think). He has to be. If (for some reason) he was arrested I could see that getting really bad for him really fast.
I can’t speak much about jails; they vary on a county by county level. Most allow previous legit prescriptions to be brought in and given, only after review by medical staff. Jail med staff generally prescribe meds from a formulary (same as private docs tend to do).
The state prison system I worked for had us med types reviewing all meds that inmates came in on from the jails, and most got placed on those meds temporarily. They’d have a physical exam generally within a week or so of arrival and meds would be reviewed/adjusted/discontinued then. Meds do need to be deemed medically necessary for them to be continued.
Our system had a central pharmacy that provided all the routine prescription drugs needed. If a med was needed urgently/emergently, it’d be filled by staff at a nearby pharmacy.
There’s a LOT more I could say on the topic, but basically I think our system did a damn fine job in maintaining a decent formulary and providing appropriate meds, even if the patients weren’t so happy with some substitutions. We had a procedure for getting non-formulary meds if they were deemed justified also.
I was on the Pharmacy & Therapeutics committee, making such drug decisions for over 17 years in that system.
Narcotics/controlled substances got close scrutiny but could be prescribed when deemed medically necessary. The patients often disagreed with medical staff’s assessment if those weren’t felt to be needed. I had more than a few patients demanding their long acting oxycontin 80mg 3 times a day along with their short acting oxycodone 10 mg every 4 hours as needed for breakthrough back pain. This in the setting of them being observed playing basketball despite their severe crippling pain.
Feel free to ask specific questions.
I’m pretty sure I’ve waxed even more eloquent on this topic here (for a given value of eloquency) but I’m too lazy to look it up.
What about pain meds/opioids? Basically, drugs that would be very popular in a prison.
I know some pain mitigation can be done without opioids but, as I mentioned above, my BiL is perpetually on them for severe, chronic back pain. Has been for years (and believe me, he has tried everything available to mitigate the pain…including several surgeries and implants…he was close to suicide at one point because the pain was so bad). I am just using him as an example (he is not in jail and I can’t imagine he ever will be). Would someone like him continue to get opioids in jail/prison?
I think the only factual answer is they would evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. Whether an inmate could successfully appeal a staff decision they didn’t like, is probably unlikely.
Opioids are discouraged but not forbidden. We don’t deny opioids to patients with significant trauma or post-op pain, nor for folks with malignant pain from cancer or other conditions. However, I have found in my 20+ years of practice that many patients who complain of intractable pain can be successfully weaned off slowly while other pain meds are implemented. We do send patients out to pain specialists in real problem cases. Most of them are moving away from chronic opioids for the vast majority of pain patients these days but for some patients, both in and out of prison, opioids can end up being the best choice.
Diversion is a problem in prison though, despite close observation and monitoring. Some pain patients get shaken down by other inmates to cheek their opioids and turn them over, some patients amplify their symptoms to get opioids, then cheek them and sell/exchange for favors, etc. etc. etc. Some inmates end up dead due to overdosing on diverted opioids. It’s tough to figure out the right balance.
You get some goofballs who say, “Eh, prisoners don’t deserve medical care!” but they do. It’s a human rights issue. I’ve heard of controversies regarding prisoners who wanted things like non-essential plastic surgery, or even gender reassignment procedures, and will leave any debate to people who know more about this than I ever will. I just filled the doctors’ orders.
I remember when a female patient had a vaginal yeast infection and the doctor didn’t know the kit had Diflucan tablets; he had wanted to order a cream that would require multiple applications in a place where she had little or no privacy, vs. a tablet that is usually one dose and done. IIRC, they also had things like Phenergan or Imodium handy for prisoners with tummy issues.
Hell, I’ve dealt with state senators and representatives who have said that to my face.
Fortunately the Supreme Court has ruled that denying inmates appropriate medical care amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Still, I’ve ended up sending affidavits to and testifying in court as to what’s appropriate care.
I know a man who recently did a prison sentence for a crime involving marijuana (and IMNSHO the sentence was justified). He has celiac sprue, and some people were joking, “So, are they going to give him a gluten-free diet?” I replied, “They HAVE to, unless they want to deal with a very sick prisoner.”
Adequately feeding prisoners is also a human rights issue!
Well, here’s the most minor of minor things. At county lockup, I’ve heard, one has to see the attending nurse (or whatever person is behind the counter) and ask for Squencher (it’s a brand) electrolyte powder, if one complains of…not sure what (I heard of) some people were complaining of. Dehydration, likely. Those particular packets are advertised on each packet as “sugar free” on one side, but having a “trivial amount of sugar” (a maltose compound), tiny amounts of potassium and sodium, and no magnesium compounds at all. A large amount of Vitamin C.
They are tasty, though, perhaps depending on which flavor one prefers, dissolved in, IIRC 16-20 oz. of water is recommended. I use a comparable brand at home and at work, similar composition, just in a bigger bag with a little scoop for days when I lose a lot of fluids due to sweat.
I’ve heard just in 24-hour or less lock-up guys would go up to the “nurse” just for these.
So, that covers it from what I’ve heard from just being arrested and held for, say, twelve or twenty-four hours. Held in jail or prison for longer terms, I of course defer to the above testimonials.
My husband (an electrician who commonly works on construction sites) consumes this regularly, and I do occasionally. Much better-tasting than Gatorade or Powerade, IMO.
Not sure why access to that would be restricted, but I have no first-hand experience with incarceration and plan to keep it that way.
Excellent choice. Theyll also give you a bologna sandwich and an apple if you’re in lockup for over a few hours.
Locations surely vary in terms of nourishment given to lock-up people just stamping their feet waiting to catch a cab ride home.
Sadly, no, you really can’t trade the solid grub (if any) for anything…everybody gets the same!
Not exactly complaing…after all, perhaps some people become dangerously hypoglemic after ten or twelve hours just sitting around.
True fact, though! I don’t know anything about the Squencher brand of powdered, water-soluble electrolye products, but I’ve heard that Amazon sometimes supplies the same small packets for free use of its manual laborers. I’m sure it is 100% tax deductible…I dunno…office supplies (hey, I did my taxes on the 29th of Jan this year…plus I’m not SE nor run an LLC)).
But I will say the blue packets of mixed berry are the bomb, and I will cut you for them!
I don’t have personal/professional knowledge. However i saw for California where I live that the feds have a Medi-Cal Inmate Program that is apparently voluntary for each county to enroll in. It sounded like it’s only for meds that are prescribed outside of a county jail.
The other poster who was a prison doctor derinitely had insights about this. Between you and me, I wouldn’t expect a corrections system to pay for medication that I would need. E g I’ve only periodically taken prescribed anticoagulants that cost $424 a month. I’d expect the prison physician would deny that since I wouldn’t have immediately died from lacking medication.
How did your prison handle diabetic prisoners? At the prison my son works at it’s a situation that causes problems. The diabetic prisoner wants to do their own care, but the prison keeps the insulin and blood testing equipment locked up and totally under their control. The prisoner reports to the infirmary however many times a day, has a blood glucose level checked, and is given an injection.
